Longfella

Prestwich-based Tony Walsh, aka Longfella is "one of the UK's most renowned performance poets." Tony was last year's Poet In Residence for Glastonbury Festival. The current Manchester Literature Festival Comedy Slam Champion, and with a reputation for also moving audiences to tears, Tony's work has been published in the UK and USA as well as featuring on BBCRadio2, BBC6Music and BBC1.

Alrene Hughes

Alrene lives in Unsworth, but was born in Enniskillen and grew up in Belfast. She is a member of the Manchester Irish Writers and has written poetry and short stories for over twenty years. She works as an assistant headteacher at a high school in Lancashire.

Alexandra Singer

Alexandra Singer is a writer from Cheadle. In 2008 aged just twenty-five, she was diagnosed with a near fatal neurological illness, and spent three months in a coma. Remarkably, Alexandra is now on the road to recovery and when not writing, she teaches languages and literature. Tea at the Grand Tazi is Alexandra’s debut novel.

Sherry Ashworth

Sherry Ashworth is an award-winning author for teenagers and she lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University in English and Creative Writing. Her most recent novel is MENTAL (Achukabooks), available as a Kindle title on Amazon.

Aaron Gow

Easy to distract, especially with food and drink, Aaron likes to write about real people and events but occasionally changes names and locations to protect the innocent. He blogs at TROUBLEu - The Trouble with U. Aaron lives in Radcliffe.

Claire Massey

Claire Massey’s short stories have been published in The Best British Short Stories 2011, Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds, Flax, Patricide, A cappella Zoo and elsewhere. Two of her stories were recently published as chapbooks by Nightjar Press. She co-edits online short story magazine Paraxis and keeps a blog called Gathering Scraps.

Rosie Garland

Born in London to a runaway teenager, Rosie has always been a cuckoo in the nest. She's aneclectic writer and performer, ranging from singing in Goth band The March Violets, to her alter-ego Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen, twisted cabaret singer, electrifying performance poet and emcee. She has four solo collections of poetry and her award-winning short stories, poems and essays have been widely anthologised. In 2009 she was diagnosed with throat cancer, and the experience inspired the poems in her new collection Everything Must Go. Described as 'dynamic and uplifting' it won the Best Collection in the 2011 Marple Poetry Competition.

Benjamin Judge

Benjamin Judge's short stories have been published in the UK, USA, Australia, and all over the Internet. His blog, Who the Fudge is Benjamin Judge? won the Best Writing award at the 2011 Manchester Blog Awards.

Emma Jane Unsworth

Emma Jane Unsworth's short fiction has been published in various places and her story 'I arrive first' was included in The Best British Short Stories 2012. Her first novel Hungry, the Stars and Everything was published in 2011. She is a columnist for The Big Issue in the North. She is working on her second novel and a collection of short stories.

Gill James

Gill James writes fiction and educational books for children and young adults. Her latest novel for young adults, Spooking, is published by Crooked Cat Books. Other books include The Prophecy and Babel for young adults and Kiters for children. She is also a part-time publisher, working with Bridge House, The Red Telephone and Chapeltown Books. She lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Salford.

Kate Feld

Kate Feld is a writer living in Ramsbottom. She is editor of Manchester arts magazine Creative Tourist, and director of creative writing organisation Openstories. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian and the Independent and her essays have been published in the Flax Books anthology Mostly Truthful. She blogs at The Manchizzle.

Ebba Brooks

Ebba Brooks writes a blog at Jenny Wren and Bella Wilfer and teaches creative writing. Her first novel is languishing in a drawer. She is the organiser of the Prestwich Book Festival.

Sarah-Clare Conlon

Sarah-Clare Conlon is a Manchester-based editor and writer, with short-short stories published in Flash, The Pygmy Giant, Spilling Ink Review, Ferment, Spilt Milk, Rainy City Stories, Duality and 330 Words. She edited the flash fiction anthology Quickies: Short Stories For Adults, writes the award-winning arts blog Words & Fixtures, and works for Manchester Literature Festival, Chorlton Arts Festival and National Flash-Fiction Day.